The DOI matches its Crossref record; 31 of the 31 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Differentiation of the asteroid Ceres as revealed by its shape
Abstract
The accretion of bodies in the asteroid belt was halted nearly 4.6 billion years ago by the gravitational influence of the newly formed giant planet Jupiter. The asteroid belt therefore preserves a record of both this earliest epoch of Solar System formation and variation of conditions within the solar nebula. Spectral features in reflected sunlight indicate that some asteroids have experienced sufficient thermal evolution to differentiate into layered structures. The second most massive asteroid--4 Vesta--has differentiated to a crust, mantle and core. 1 Ceres, the largest and most massive asteroid, has in contrast been presumed to be homogeneous, in part because of its low density, low albedo and relatively featureless visible reflectance spectrum, similar to carbonaceous meteorites that have suffered minimal thermal processing. Here we show that Ceres has a shape and smoothness indicative of a gravitationally relaxed object. Its shape is significantly less flattened than that expected for a homogeneous object, but is consistent with a central mass concentration indicative of differentiation. Possible interior configurations include water-ice-rich mantles over a rocky core.
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“It is 25% the size of our Moon and twice the size of Enceladus and likely differentiated into a rocky core and icy shell (McCord and Sotin, 2005; Thomas et al., 2005).”
From The Astrobiology Primer v2.0 (2016) · cites this paper as Thomas et al., 2005
Citations
Cites
Impact cratering—A geologic process
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Self-citationCeres: Evolution and current state
McCord, T. B., & Sotin, C. (2005) · Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets · doi:10.1029/2004je002244 · Cited by 272
A Thermal Model for the Differentiation of Asteroid 4 Vesta, Based on Radiogenic Heating
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NEAR's Flyby of 253 Mathilde: Images of a C Asteroid
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Self-citation
Research works printed but not linked: 2
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- Pavlovsky, C. et al. ACS Instrument Handbook, Version 5.0 (Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, 2004)
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Sorted by citations
Carry, B. (2012) · Planetary and Space Science · doi:10.1016/j.pss.2012.03.009 · Cited by 637
“Small bodies can be modeled as smooth tri-axial ellipsoids ( e.g. , Thomas et al., 2005; Schmidt et al., 2009; Drummond et al., 2009, 2010), convex shapes (Descamps et al., 2007; ˇDurech et al., 2011), or realistic 3-”
BackgroundSolar System evolution from compositional mapping of the asteroid belt
DeMeo, F. E., & Carry, B. (2014) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature12908 · Cited by 564
Report of the IAU Working Group on Cartographic Coordinates and Rotational Elements: 2009
Archinal, B. A., A’Hearn, M. F., Bowell, E., Conrad, A. R., Consolmagno, G. J., Courtin, R., Fukushima, T., Hestroffer, D., Hilton, J. L., Krasinsky, G. A., et al. (2010) · Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy · doi:10.1007/s10569-010-9320-4 · Cited by 495
“In Table 6 a mean radius value from Thomas et al. (2005) has been added for (1) Ceres and a footnote added to note an alternate determination of Ceres’ shape by Carry et al. (2008).”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialSelf-citationWater ice and organics on the surface of the asteroid 24 Themis
Campins, H., Hargrove, K., Pinilla-Alonso, N., Howell, E., Kelley, M., Licandro, J., Mothé-Diniz, T., Fernandez, Y., & Ziffer, J. (2010) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature09029 · Cited by 354
Perryman, M. A. C. (2011) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108304160 · Cited by 380
Metadata
- Authors
- Thomas, P. C., Parker, J. W., McFadden, L. A., Russell, C. T., Stern, S. A., Sykes, M. V., & Young, E. F.
- Affiliations
- Cornell University (US)
- Southwest Research Institute (US)
- University of Maryland, College Park (US)
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Planetary Science Institute (US)
- Corresponding author
- Thomas, P. C.
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2005-09
- Volume
- 437
- Issue
- 7056
- Pages
- 224-226
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W2055124830
- Semantic Scholar
- a23b0c9794d5736532a9b5148497f49fe879ad8e
- Cited by
- 303
- References
- 31
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 37 · 2017: 25 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 22 · 2014: 22 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 6.79
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Space and Planetary Science › Astro and Planetary Science
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Space and Planetary Science › Planetary Science and Exploration
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
- Keywords
- Ceres, asteroid shape, asteroid differentiation, gravitational relaxation, central mass concentration, ice mantles, rocky core, asteroid belt formation, solar nebula, thermal evolution, Vesta, asteroid albedo
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